Saturday, September 07, 2013

Bison Smith on The Art of Wrestling

I've been trying to get ahead on some household chore stuff, so I decided to load my iPhone up with some podcasts to keep my mind occupied. I'm WAY behind on Colt Cabana's The Art of Wrestling, so I put four on my device, including one with Mark "Bison" Smith, an American pro wrestler that plied his trade in Puerto Rico and in Japan for Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The Bison episode was terrific, because it gave me a glimpse of what it's like to be a regular gaijin for NOAH, how to get over with the fans out there, and proper conduct with guys like Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, and Mitsuharu Misawa. He also talked about his role as someone that gets pushed to a certain degree, but in the end, gives the native stars of the promotion the rub. The man was just happy to be a part of the pro wrestling family. In the end, the interview was also quite sad, as Bison was in the ring when Misawa died, and he recounted the situation, and two other wrestling-related deaths he had witnessed. Bison went on to mention that he had gained an acceptance of death's inevitability, which gave me chills, as he would die a couple of months after this interview.

I'm not sure why I felt compelled to share this with you, but I did. It just hit home with me as someone that loves pro wrestling, Japan, and the combination of those two things. I guess it's also an opportunity to share a match or two of his, as he was an agile monster heel, therefore, fun to watch.